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‘GOUGING’ THE EARTH

Date: March 8, 2023 -

‘Writing the Earth’ is the catchy title of a programme starting this week at the Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin, which brings writers and scientists together to explore climate and geoscience. ‘Gouging the Earth’ might have been a more apt title in light of the sponsor and collaborator for this event. The Irish Centre for… Read more »

BERNARD LOONEY’S CLIMATE FIGHT

Date: March 8, 2023 -

The Healy-Raes aren’t the only famous Kerry men with a knack for spouting nonsense on climate. The head of oil giant BP, Bernard Looney, who is originally from Kenmare, warned last week that failing to invest enough in fossil fuels could undermine the shift to green energy. That’s right. As a Bloomberg headline put it:… Read more »

JEANNE BAARS’ BELLAIR SALE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK NOTES that the sprawling Bellair Estate outside Ballycumber village in Co Offaly has been sold, a year after coming on the market with a juicy €5m price tag. Bellair was acquired many moons ago by Cecil Baars, who died in 2005 having established a substantial dairy farm operation and cheese-making plant on the lands,… Read more »

DOMINI KEMP’S NEW RECIPE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

THE OPENING of a new Rathmines restaurant called Lottie’s on the site of Fiona McHugh’s shuttered Lenehans eatery is the second venture for Domini Kemp’s Valence Hospitality group, where she has been joined by a partner with deep pockets, Brian Montague (see The Phoenix 14/1/22). Not that Domini hasn’t a few bob herself, judging by… Read more »

THE MORANS CROSS THEIR FINGERS

Date: March 8, 2023 -

WITH CHELTENHAM kicking off next week, all those big-spending owners will again battle it out to bag even the one winner that might justify the eye-watering sums being spent on jumps horses these days. Some have more on the line than others. Punters are accustomed to seeing the likes of Rich Ricci, JP McManus, Michael… Read more »

DENIS HOGAN’S GAMBLE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

IT IS three years since that controversial race in Dundalk in 2020 when the Denis Hogan-trained stable mates Tony the Gent and Yuften finished first and second in a claiming race. The unusual betting trends associated with that race and the contrasting rides given to each horse sparked an investigation by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory… Read more »

REUBEN BROTHERS CLOSING IN

Date: March 8, 2023 -

THE NEWS that UK outfit Arena Racing Company (ARC) is in advanced negotiations to buy Dundalk racecourse could have interesting implications for the landscape of Irish racecourses if the deal goes through. Owned by billionaire brothers Simon and David Reuben, ARC operates 16 turf and all-weather racecourses in the UK including Doncaster, the home of… Read more »

O’BRIEN’S AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

HAVING PLUNDERED two of Australia’s most iconic races – the Melbourne Cup and the Cox Plate – in recent years, Joseph O’Brien has shipped a strong team down under for the potentially lucrative Autumn Racing Carnival in Sydney. O’Brien’s previous exploits in Australia have proved most rewarding (far more so than his illustrious father, Aidan… Read more »

THE DRY – RTÉ ONE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

AS THE nepo-baby debate continues online, it’s ironic that RTÉ’s latest comedy-drama, The Dry, arrives courtesy of writer Nancy Harris, scion of one-time Sindo royalty Anne and Eoghan Harris. While a satirical farce about Eoghan’s Twitter antics could potentially be box office, RTÉ viewers have had to settle for The Dry, a middling comedy-drama about… Read more »

TERRY MCMAHON’S BROADSIDE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

IN THE glut of recent Oscars-inspired media coverage of Irish cinema, fans of Goldhawk will be familiar with the absence of references to Irish performers’ battle to get the same standard of contracts as non-Irish actors in productions here (see The Phoenix 10/2/23). Striding into the fray last week, however, came Terry McMahon. The writer… Read more »

MALIN CORP’S SHARES CONTINUE TO BE UNDERRATED BY MARKET

Date: March 8, 2023 -

DARRAGH LYONS has the valuable quality, as far as Malin Corp shareholders are concerned, of being boring. After the rollercoaster ride during Kelly Martin’s reign, which ended six years ago, a safe pair of hands is just what the doctor ordered. Moreover, Lyons has nursed Malin’s portfolio with no little skill and intelligence – something… Read more »

SMURFIT KAPPA’S CRAZY PROFITS COMING UNDER PRESSURE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

OVER THREE years after Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) copped a huge fine for its role in a price-fixing cartel in the cardboard box market in Italy, it seems clear that the Irish company and other major European operators have absolutely no need of any dodgy agreements to rake in the cash. Indeed, the levels of… Read more »

BRIAN ORMOND’S MISSTEP

Date: March 8, 2023 -

BARELY A year after benefiting from oodles of free advertising in the Irish media, courtesy of gushing articles about Brian Ormond’s move into the footwear business, one of the companies behind the Movrs franchise is tripping into liquidation. K Club-based Ormond lives an enviable lifestyle, with a nice pile in the K Club and regular… Read more »

PHARMACISTS’ FINANCIAL HEADACHE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

IN RECENT weeks Dermot Twomey’s Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) has been getting its fair share of attention, most notably as a result of the high-profile shortage of many medicines. No doubt IPU president Twomey and the other top brass are hoping that this helps to distract members from the continued haemorrhaging of money at a… Read more »

DUNCAN STEWART’S MANY HATS

Date: March 8, 2023 -

WITH THE critically acclaimed Eco Eye television series jettisoned by RTÉ (see The Phoenix 24/2/23), it may not be too long before presenter and climate activist Duncan Stewart is back on our screens with his latest venture. He has had a fair few different corporate incarnations down the years. While Montrose sought to sugar the… Read more »

CERREJÓN’S IRISH MINING COMPANY CALLS IT A DAY

Date: March 8, 2023 -

THE IRISH-registered company that has been the sole marketer of coal from the controversial giant Cerrejón mine on the Colombia-Venezuela border has just been wound up. Not surprisingly, there was a few bob in the pot. Owned today by major London-listed commodity trader Glencore, CMC-Coal Marketing DAC has been selling coal from Cerrejón for 20… Read more »

BERTIE AHERN’S REAL AGENDA

Date: February 22, 2023 -

WHETHER INSPIRED by some devious and cunning politician or whether they became obsessed with Bertie Ahern’s presumed presidential ambitions, journalists en masse were diverted from the real agenda behind his recent re-entry to Fianna Fáil. As Goldhawk observed last year, Micheál Martin and other Fianna Fáil ministers anticipated a most embarrassing scenario unfolding with the… Read more »

PROFILE: DOUGLAS TAYLOR

Date: February 22, 2023 -

FANS OF Goldhawk will be familiar with horseracing fanatic and scourge of the bookies Douglas Taylor, whose day job is CEO of the super-profitable MCR Group, one of the country’s biggest outsourcing companies. Having started as a construction recruitment specialist, it expanded into areas such as security, waste management and contract cleaning but Doug didn’t… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: ANLUAN DUNNE

Date: February 22, 2023 -

CAN TRALEE’S Anluan Dunne confound the critics in Kerry and lead a Green march forward for the party in this most inhospitable of constituencies? That’s the question party strategists are debating. While the party is getting a battering in the opinion polls, a sharp eye is being kept on future prospects, with potential candidates being… Read more »

COLOUR-BLIND CRITICS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

HUGH LINEHAN has been conspicuously silent about the race row over nominations to the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2022. The IT’s arts and culture editor, who also hosts the weekly Inside Politics podcast, has stayed silent about the nomination of just two white actors in the play The Octoroon – with the other eight… Read more »

DUNCAN’S DOSH

Date: February 22, 2023 -

LAST WEEKEND climate activist and environmental campaigner Duncan Stewart got a run-out on Brendan O’Connor’s Radio 1 show on foot of the unpopular decision by Montrose to cease broadcasting the Eco Eye series, the last episode of which was aired on February 9. One of… Read more »

MICHAEL O’LEARY ON THE BUSES

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IN DECEMBER last, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary made one of his trademark outbursts, this time with a target that, even by his standards, was unexpected; the subject of his ire was that money was being “squandered” by the Government to run the state’s school bus service. According to Michael O’Leary, airline passengers are charged an EU… Read more »

CIARA KELLY’S MORNING MOOLAH

Date: February 22, 2023 -

AS ONE of star agent Noel O’Kelly’s roster of ‘talent’, doctor-turned-broadcaster Ciara Kelly is proving quite the earner. The Newstalk presenter’s profile on NM Management’s website notes that, apart from the morning radio gig, Ciara is also “a regular keynote speaker for health conferences, speaking engagements and corporate events”. On top of these lucrative speaking… Read more »

HUGH CAHILL’S OWN GOALS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IT HAS been an unfortunate start to the year for RTÉ sports broadcaster Hugh Cahill, whose company has just gone into liquidation. On top of this setback, the well-known media personality finds himself on the end of a judgment from his local credit union. The popular Cahill has been a familiar face and voice for… Read more »

NIAMH PARKER’S TWEETS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

THE STORY of Altada’s travails keeps on giving and last weekend the Business Post featured a large spread detailing multiple criticisms of founder director Allan Beechinor from the recently appointed liquidator, John Healy. The story will not have come as a big surprise to followers of the Twitter account of Beechinor’s wife and Altada co-founder,… Read more »

FINTAN CALLS TIME ON BIDEN

Date: February 22, 2023 -

FINTAN O’TOOLE is probably the most influential opinion former in Ireland and thus far he has laid most blame for the war in Ukraine on President Vladimir Putin rather than President Joe Biden. But this week he effectively urged the West to withdraw its support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion. But it is these… Read more »

AILISH KELLY’S FINE FIGURES

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IT WAS not surprising to see media-savvy Ailish Kelly of the Avoca cosmetic surgery clinic in Co Wicklow pop up in a Sunday Times article last weekend, headlined “Designer vagina surgery soars”. She was quick to point out that around 12% of the procedures carried out at The Avoca Clinic each month are labiaplasties costing… Read more »

VOL 41 NO 04

Date: February 22, 2023 -

SISTERS’ SUMMIT

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IT LOOKS like Dublin’s Convention Centre will be the hot ticket in May when Executive Women Gathering (EWG), described as “Ireland’s largest female executive leadership summit”, kicks off. Promoted by ‘media partner’ the Irish Times, the one-day shindig costs a mere €445 with the early bird offer. Speakers on May 5 include candle queen Jo… Read more »

IRISH MEDIA AT WAR

Date: February 22, 2023 -

A REHASHED article that has effectively been published already by the Irish Times, Irish Independent, RTÉ, BBC and now the Sunday Times again last weekend, lionised Paul Niland, Dublin’s answer to Volodymyr Zelenskyy who refuses to leave Ukraine as it is his “home”. The director of suicide prevention hotline Lifeline Ukraine, Niland has received many… Read more »

IDLIB: IRELAND’S IMPACT

Date: February 22, 2023 -

THE EARTHQUAKES that hit south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria caused widespread destruction of property and tens of thousands of death. The region has been ravaged by war for over a decade and both the local population and the many internally displaced people occupying camps have also in recent years had their dire situation compounded by… Read more »

BAD APPLES

Date: February 22, 2023 -

DAVID BURKE, the specialist author on British intelligence in Ireland, is shortly to release an old-fashioned pamphlet entitled An Orchard of Bad Apples (which will soon be available on the Covert History Ireland website). Burke argues that the UK is paying a reputational price for the decades during which the state turned a blind eye… Read more »

THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

Date: February 22, 2023 -

EARLIER THIS month United Nations general secretary António Guterres rang alarm bells when he told the general assembly (in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine): “I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war. I fear it is doing so with its eyes wide open.” Addressing the supply of heavy offensive weapons… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: February 22, 2023 -

I’ve been up and down the country, particularly since 2014. I’ve been to conferences on Brexit in all the border counties, huge meetings in Cavan, Monaghan, in Donegal. Next week I’m with Ibec. I consider this my public service. Bertie Ahern, speaking to reporters, as quoted by RTÉ.ie, submitted by reader Manifestation is a way… Read more »

DUP’S DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IN OCTOBER 2019 Leo Varadkar went for a walk up the garden path in the grounds of Thornton Manor in the Wirral with Boris Johnson. What Varadkar might agree to was a source of concern for Irish officials. The main concession Vlad did agree then has now emerged as the biggest obstacle to a UK-EU… Read more »

FINE GAEL CROSSES THE BORDER

Date: February 22, 2023 -

FINE GAEL’S move to set up its own organizational structures north of the border says as much about Fianna Fáil’s wavering commitment to a united Ireland under Micheál Martin as it does about FG under Leo Varadkar. It hardly caused an eyebrow to arch in establishment circles south of the border – reflecting the Dublin… Read more »